you are not who you think you are

this should not be!

“This should not be!” is the battle cry of all humanity. Shouted from rooftops, whispered in bedrooms, hospitals and alleyways. Discussed in a million different ways over coffee, tea or cocktails. Plastered across various media outlets. Humans have been living by this creed for millennia. It takes the form of “stamping out inequality and injustices,” “fighting for a cure” for cancer and intending to “beat to odds” of various other diseases, and “doing the right thing!”

It’s certainly in full vocalized force these days, post election. No surprise, really. Activists are howling rejection and rebellion. But if activism is rooted in “This should not be!” then it’s rooted in resistance and is, therefore, no different than that which it intends to rectify. Donald Trump is not the enemy. Nor are his projected policies. He is a prime example of someone – and a mirror for all who remain – trapped in the egoic sense of a separate self who has control. Cancer is also not the enemy. It’s a label that completely obscures the lived, moment-to-moment reality that is beyond such a simple label, beyond all description.

There is no such thing as separation, to say nothing of a separate self that has control. When this is seen, well, all problems cease to be problems – including who is president and the symptoms of cancer. What is, is. Period. End of story. The thinking mind – the one that thinks it has control, or can at least figure out the solution to life’s problems – will never understand this. It will go on screaming its battle cry, “This should not be!” until the last breath is taken and the body becomes lifeless. That the body becomes lifeless doesn’t mean that you die… quite the contrary: You were never born; you never die. Only the thought of ‘you’ (the one who has control) dies. Even this isn’t accurate. The thought of ‘you’ is seen for what it has been… a kind of hypnotic trance, a movement.

It’s best to just give up trying to understand any of this and see, instead, that you misunderstand. Then, at least, there is a chance that the thought of ‘you’ will die before the body becomes lifeless. And if that happens, let the trumpets sound “Hallelujah!”